Building off the work of Hudson and colleagues, we seek to employ an implementation science approach to improve attachment security among donor-conceived people (DCP). This line of research will explore whether an intervention designed to help DCP make self-directed changes to their attachment style will increase attachment security and decrease insecurity (i.e., avoidance, anxiety). Potential effectiveness will be evaluated in a sample of 200+ donor-conceived people. This research will yield multiple “repeated” measurements on each participant (at least 4 weeks/waves). We hope that the results of this work will help researchers better understand whether interventions can be effective in bolstering security, thereby changing peoples’ attachment styles. Over the long term, such research may help researchers establish more broad-scale, interventionist-directed programs designed to benefit DCP and their families so they can have more positive interpersonal relationships.

Preliminary results: Over the course of the study, participants’ feelings and patterns in close relationships were generally quite stable. While there was a slight increase in tendencies to keep emotional distance from others (i.e., attachment avoidance) over time, the change was very small. Overall, we found little evidence that attachment patterns changed substantially during the study period. Because many participants did not complete all four surveys, these findings should be interpreted cautiously, as limited data may have made it harder to detect small changes over time.